What If Superpowers Were Real – TED-Ed Video Series

Ever since I was a kid reading comic books I dreamed of having superpowers. How could you not?! They’re awesome! It would be so cool to have super strength, read minds, and fly. Thanks to Ted-Ed, we have a six-part series of videos that you can watch that break down and explain the scientific ramifications of utilizing such powers.

For example, “did you know that being invisible would render you blind? The transparent retina in your eye would be unable to reflect light, therefore providing no information for your brain to interpret as “sight.” More gruesomely, if you could fly above the clouds at any respectable speed, your face would experience extreme heat due to friction. Sure, you could slow down, but then you might get a little chilly at such high altitudes (assuming you could breathe.) You could fly below the clouds, but you’d need to be quite nimble to avoid the millions of bugs that would inevitably obstruct your path! The list goes on….”

There are six superowers explored in the series by educator Joy Lin. Those powers include super speed, super strength, invisibility, body mass, immortality, and flight. Lin explores the the scientific and logical fallacies of these powers. There’s a lot of cool stuff that you could learn here that you may have never thought about.

Check out the videos and let us know what your superpower of choice would be!